My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
| 245 |
| GREAT AND AWESOME NAME |
| Psalm 99:3 Let them praise your great and awesome name! Holy is he! |
| We find our verse this morning in a Psalm that highlights the holiness of God, and for a brief moment, before I opened the full psalm, I assumed the “them” in this verse, referred to the nation of Israel, for they were God’s people and they had been privileged to know of His holiness, His “otherness”, His separated status. I rattle on about this for it was many years that I understood holiness to be principally referring to the sinlessness of God. Now, I do not want to imply that sinlessness is not included in the term “holy”. I just want to confess that I think it describes a much greater concept than simply a negative about God, that He has no sin. He is without sin, sinless and apart from sin. But for God to be called holy is to describe God as being different, other than what we understand, righteous in a way we may not fully understand, unless we dwell on Jesus, and the manner in which He lived among us. Jesus was holy, separated from sinners, as the apostle tells us, but we know He lived amongst the worst of sinners, the “dregs” of society, a friend of sinners. Hebrews 7:26 ESV – For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. The contrast between our understanding of holiness and how He lived out His holy life often astounds me. I often think of sin as the Old Testament describes it. If I touch it, it defiles me, and my responsibility is to stay away from all contamination. Haggai describes my understanding in his second chapter Haggai 2:12 ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered and said, “No.” Haggai 2:13 Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.” Non Transferable Holiness does not transfer to items. Any item that is holy is alone holy. Whatever it meant to be holy, to be separate, to be consecrated to the temple, or to the priest, or to God, alone was holy. Isolated Holiness was to be protected by isolation. If a sinful person or item touched a holy item, it became unclean. For many years, I understood that to be holy was to stay away from sin, and by inference, away from sinners, seeking to keep my life pure by isolation. Fat chance at success with this, for it produced a believer that was ineffective, lonely, self righteous and somewhat angry. But then I started noticing that Jesus drank with sinners, went to parties, touched lepers and forgave adulterous women, raising them up by their unclean, sinful hand. How could He do that, and remain holy, separate from sinners, as Hebrew speaks? As a follower, does this example of Jesus’ holy life amongst sinners allow me to go out drinking and partying? For some believers, this may be allowed, but due to my past, my running from God in my youth, my teenage alcoholism and previous drug habits, I knew I had to refrain from certain activities to avoid temptation. Eventually my thinking morphed and I thought my abstinence from those who partook was my holiness. How little I understood! Everything turned upside down when Jesus arrived, for when a sinful person touched Him, power was transferred from Him to the sinful person. Forgiveness and healing, illumination and understanding flowed from Him. His was a life of non-isolation, of being in the midst of all who welcomed Him, and even amongst those who hated Him. He was simply put – unbelievable! I realize I have focused on the holiness of God in this post, but so many thoughts were flooding my mind of how Great and Awesome Jesus, in His life amongst us, actually was. His holiness, His “otherness” is so foreign to my standard thinking of God that when I am caught in the conflict between my thinking and His message, I tend to blurt out the praise I have for Him, weak as it is. May we praise the Great and Awesome name of Jesus, for He is Holy. He is so different from us and He calls us to a holy life, a different life than we are living. A life of change and growth, a life of holiness amongst the hurting and the sinful. |
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
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